Derby Talk

I'm new to pinewood derby and been reading a ton on this forum and other PWD forums, but never posted here before. I had a question about vendors that I was wondering about.

I'm wondering why the vendor [no advertising for this vendor] seems to be banned from being mentioned on this forum? The only reference I could find is someone saying it was because completed cars body kits were posted. But I noticed all the vendors mentioned here in Derby Talk seem to sell all kinds of pre-made kits. Is there something else that causes [no advertising for this vendor] to seem to be the Voldemort of (he-who-shall-not-be-named) of pinewood derby vendors on Derby Talk?

cedron wrote:I'm new to pinewood derby and been reading a ton on this forum and other PWD forums, but never posted here before. I had a question about vendors that I was wondering about.

I'm wondering why the vendor [no advertising for this vendor] seems to be banned from being mentioned on this forum? The only reference I could find is someone saying it was because completed cars body kits were posted. But I noticed all the vendors mentioned here in Derby Talk seem to sell all kinds of pre-made kits. Is there something else that causes [no advertising for this vendor] to seem to be the Voldemort of (he-who-shall-not-be-named) of pinewood derby vendors on Derby Talk?

The actual verbiage from the rules are:

Selling of Completed or Mostly Completed Cars - No advertising is allowed for sites or individuals that sell completed or mostly completed cars. This includes advertising for sellers of online auction sites, like eBay. If you know what this board is all about, then this rule needs no explanation.

I think the distinction is between a kit that includes a partially shaped body, but still requires wheel/axle prep, alignment and weighting, etc, and a kit that is already pre-drilled, weighted and aligned and just needs the axles pushed in and some paint thrown on to be race-ready.

Wow, the animosity seems so high that my post was censored in minutes. Was I really advertising just by saying the name?

VK, are you speaking for the forum or are those your guesses? Is someone who is an admin able to speak definitively?

For example, I see there are lots of posts mentioning [no advertising for this vendor], but that site also sells completed cars and a "supertune" service.

Added in edit: Here is another I've noticed: [no advertising for this vendor] is also mentioned in this forum, and he sells complete cars on his site and eBay as well. "Complete Kit ready for you to paint and race."

This is why I'm just confused. There must be something else going on, but I can't figure out what it is. It's the admin's rights to do what they want with this forum, but I'm curious the reason.

cedron wrote:Wow, the animosity seems so high that my post was censored in minutes. Was I really advertising just by saying the name?

VK, are you speaking for the forum or are those your guesses? Is someone who is an admin able to speak definitively?

That's just my understanding. You'll have to wait for an actual mod to weigh-in for the authoritative reply.

Vitamin K wrote:

cedron wrote:Wow, the animosity seems so high that my post was censored in minutes. Was I really advertising just by saying the name?

VK, are you speaking for the forum or are those your guesses? Is someone who is an admin able to speak definitively?

That's just my understanding. You'll have to wait for an actual mod to weigh-in for the authoritative reply.

Thanks for the clarification, VK. I added a couple of examples to my post that helps illustrate my confusion.

cedron wrote:Wow, the animosity seems so high that my post was censored in minutes. Was I really advertising just by saying the name?

That is the site doing that, the automatic word censors, not any moderator jumping in. I do consider the company name and/or the website address a form of advertising. Companies all want to get their name and website out there and word of mouth certainly does that to draw people in.

cedron wrote:Added in edit: Here is another I've noticed: [no advertising for this vendor] is also mentioned in this forum, and he sells complete cars on his site and eBay as well. "Complete Kit ready for you to paint and race."

That, I have not been aware of, as I don't routinely peruse vendor websites or eBay. I'd have to look into it.

cedron wrote:This is why I'm just confused. There must be something else going on, but I can't figure out what it is. It's the admin's rights to do what they want with this forum, but I'm curious the reason.

The reasons are explained in the site rules that Vitamin K pointed out. Derby Talk has always been about kids working with adults to build a car. Buying fully or nearly completed cars goes against that focus, as well as blatantly violating most race rules for the kid's races. Frankly, I don't see why this forum should be a conduit for vendors that want to sell their wares when they know fully well that they will most likely be used to cheat in a kid's race and they deliberately target such customers.

I do see what looks to be fully completed cars on the [no advertising for this vendor] website, so I will update the forum accordingly.

gpraceman wrote: The reasons are explained in the site rules that Vitamin K pointed out. Derby Talk has always been about kids working with adults to build a car. Buying fully or nearly completed cars goes against that focus, as well as blatantly violating most race rules for the kid's races. Frankly, I don't see why this forum should be a conduit for vendors that want to sell their wares when they know fully well that they will most likely be used to cheat in a kid's race and they deliberately target such customers.

Thanks for the confirmation, gpraceman. I am actually totally against the selling of ready-to-race cars to scouts, too. Some of the great vendors that can't be mentioned on this board have so many good products; I wish they would just drop the pre-made cars. They have competitors selling versions of almost everything else, so other than those cars, there isn't really much of anything else "bad" on those sites.

I actually didn't want anyone else removed from this board. I was hoping that comparisons to others would allow you to let the others back on instead of removing more.

cedron wrote:Thanks for the confirmation, gpraceman. I am actually totally against the selling of ready-to-race cars to scouts, too. Some of the great vendors that can't be mentioned on this board have so many good products; I wish they would just drop the pre-made cars. They have competitors selling versions of almost everything else, so other than those cars, there isn't really much of anything else "bad" on those sites.

I actually didn't want anyone else removed from this board. I was hoping that comparisons to others would allow you to let the others back on instead of removing more.

I'd be more than willing to add any vendor back in, if they stopped selling completed and/or mostly completed cars and tuning services. Something tells me, that Hell will freeze over before that happens, but I would love to be wrong.

Cedron, I'll bet you'd be shocked if you knew how much ( no advertising etc.) was making on selling completed cars that you know are going to be fast. Someone who knows what they are doing can build a car that might well win a district race, build it fast, and get $150.00 for it. Do you suppose any vendor would actually tell you how much money they made in selling completed cars (basic paint job included) ? I get a kick out of "Pinewood Derby Mom" or something like that on ebay. Do you really think that's a "Pinewood Derby Mom?
God Bless Randy. I like the way he does it.
Yours in Going Downhill Fast,
Bill (Speedster)